refined
Americanadjective
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having or showing well-bred feeling, taste, etc..
refined people.
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freed or free from coarseness, vulgarity, etc..
refined taste.
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freed from impurities.
refined sugar.
- Synonyms:
- distilled
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very subtle, precise, or exact.
refined distinctions.
adjective
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not coarse or vulgar; genteel, elegant, or polite
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subtle; discriminating
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freed from impurities; purified
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of refined
Explanation
Something that's refined has gone through a process to remove impurities. An oil refinery removes impurities from oil. When a person's refined, they have good manners and good taste. A stereotypically refined lady will drink tea every day at four in the afternoon, lift her pinky while drinking, and select only refined (pure white, not raw) sugar as a sweetener. Someone with a refined taste in art has learned how to make judgments about what is good and what they like.
Vocabulary lists containing refined
The Diary of Anne Frank
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Chains
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A Streetcar Named Desire
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Who wants to invest in something that, by the time you build it, the demand is down?” said John Auers, marketing director of refined fuels at oil-and-gas data analytics firm Novi Labs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Russia supplies almost all of the two countries’ refined fuels and 13% of Mongolia’s electricity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
The threat of U.S. tariffs — the Commerce Department has outlined a potential phased universal tariff on refined copper in 2027 and 2028 — also prompted traders to pull forward months of future supply.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
They are typically made with refined fats, oils, sugars, starches, salts, and other additives designed to improve flavor, texture, and shelf life, often while lowering nutritional quality.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 27, 2026
A veritable fountain of youth in our dolmades and taramasalata and even in our baklava, which didn’t commit the sin of containing refined sugar but had only honey.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
